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<H2>Gold Under Our Feet </H2>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">&copy; 1998 by
<A HREF="mailto:JohnGBowen@email.msn.com">John Bowen</A></FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1"><IMG HEIGHT="137" WIDTH="192" SRC="GoldUnd1.gif"></FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1"><B>An early Chinese-Canadian goldminer. Picture
courtesy of CCNA</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">All of us with children adopted in China
recognize the need to give our children and indeed ourselves the opportunity to
connect with Chinese culture. But in practical terms, what does it mean to
&#147;connect with Chinese Culture&#148;? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">Is it learning Mandarin or Cantonese,
celebrating Chinese New Year and other festivals, visiting Chinatown, or making
a pilgrimage to China? Yes, of course. It is any or all these. But in a boarder
sense what is it? I suggest that connecting to Chinese Culture for us means not
so much casting our consciousness across the Pacific to China, Taiwan, Hong
Kong or Singapore, but looking to the rich heritage and dynamic
<IMG HEIGHT="273" WIDTH="190" SRC="GoldUnd2.gif" ALIGN="RIGHT"> presence of the
Chinese North American community. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">Is there a material difference that should
concern us? I think so. Chinese North Americans have lived and worked in every
part of this continent for a century and a half. They have fashioned a culture,
or cultures of their own and most importantly, they have built bridges to, and
shared in the building of the common culture. They came from all over China and
Asia, from humble and from privileged circumstances, and their numbers were
periodically replenished with new arrivals.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">As we all know, early Chinese settlers in North
America suffered hardships and discrimination. It has only been the second half
of this century that Chinese North Americans have enjoyed all the benefits of
citizenship. Despite all that, Chinese North Americans have made profound
contributions in a walks of life, in all communities where they settled.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">It is the Chinese North American community that
our children will inherit and become a part of. It is for us, I believe, to get
to know it, both as a national and continental culture and as a vital part of
our own local community.</FONT></P>
<H3>Chinese North American History</H3>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">I want to say as little as possible here about
Chinese North American history. It is an important and fascinating subject. But
in this article, I want to focus on the here and now. Furthermore,
<B><I>&#147;connecting to Chinese Culture for us means not so much casting our
consciousness across the Pacific to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Singapore, but
looking to the rich heritage and dynamic presence of the Chinese North American
community&#148; </I></B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">there is a wealth of historical material
available from libraries, bookstores, universities and web-sites. I encourage
everyone to at least pick up one or two books in their local library on the
history of Chinese communities closest to them. Some books, like <I>Saltwater
City,a History of Vancovuer&#146;s Chinese Community,</I> are very detailed and
especially FCC parents of Chinese origin will recognize many names. There are
many good web-sites. One place to start is the University of San Diego&#146;s
Asian Studies Faculty web-site at
http://gort.ucsd.edu/dtweedy/hands/AsianStudies.html. For a pictorial overview
of Chinese-Canadian history, check out http://ccnc.ca/toronto/history. And by
the way, have you guessed who&#146;s portrait appears on the front page of this
issue, next to the photo of the early gold miner? It is Won Alexander Cum-yow,
the first Canadian of Chinese origin to be born in Canada (in 1861).</FONT></P>
<H3>How Many Chinese North Americans</H3>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">The very word &#147;race&#148; sticks in a
liberal throat. The concept is so subject to misuse that race or
&#147;ethnicity&#148; was avoided by Statistics Canada for many years, until
after much debate and controversy, it was resurrected as a direct question in
the 1996 Census. The U S Bureau of the Census has used the word race mainly as
a convenient way of reducing a lot of ethnic origins into a manageable few.
&#147;White&#148;, for instance is one, &#147;Black&#148; is another and
Chinese Americans belong in an amorphous category called &#147;Asian and
Pacific Islanders&#148;.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">In 1990, the Chinese American population was
1,645,472. It had more than doubled since 1980. The current 1988 population is
probably approaching 3,000,000. Chinese is the largest of the Asian Pacific
islander constituents, accounting for about 1% of the US population.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">Chinese rank third in number in the United
States&#146;s foreign born population. And almost three quarters of the
Chinese-American foreign born arrived in the United States after 1980.</FONT> 
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">In 1996, the total population of Canada
claiming Chinese ancestry was 921,585 (of which 800,470 were single ancestry).
This is about 3% of the Canadian population. Chinese Canadians are the largest,
by far, of Statistics Canada&#146;s so called &#147;visible minority
groups&#148;. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">About 17% of the Canadian population is foreign
born. Almost 10% of the foreign born population was born in China, Hong Kong or
Taiwan. A little over half (51%) of the Chinese population in Canada is foreign
born.</FONT></P>
<H3>Where In North America?</H3>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">&#147;There are hardly any Chinese people
here&#148;, observed my four year old daughter, during the third of our annual
visits to Grandma and Grandpa&#146;s summer cottage on Lake Erie. &#147;There
are&#133;some&#148;, I said, a bit defensively (though I can&#146;t imagine
why). Melissa was right, of course. In Vancouver, where we live, no people
scene seems authentic without at least a quarter of the faces being Asian. And
while there are Chinese North-Americans in every region and most communities on
the continent, the distribution is anything but even. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">In both Canada and the United States, Chinese
populations are much more concentrated in major cities than is the case with
the population as a whole. However, in terms of geographic distribution of the
Chinese populations, the countries differ. In the United States, almost 60% of
Chinese Americans live in the West, as opposed to the other . In Canada, the
Chinese-Canadian population is more or less evenly divided between Central
Canada and the West. Almost 97% live in four provinces, Ontario (45%), British
Columbia (35%), Alberta (11%) and Qu&eacute;bec (6%). </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">Although Ontario in 1996, had the largest
Chinese-Canadian population of any province (391,095), it is in British
Columbia (299,860) where Chinese North Americans constitute the highest
proportion of the population of any province or state. In BC the 1996
proportion was 8% of single and multiple origin population and 14% of single
origin population. It grew from 6% in 1991 and 4% in 1986.</FONT></P>
<H3>Major Chinese North American Centres</H3>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">New York and Toronto probably have the largest
Chinese populations in Metropolitan North America. Los Angeles, Chicago,
Seattle, Houston and San Diego have large Chinese communities too. But in all
these cities the Chinese population is one of several large ethnic populations
(Blacks, Italian, Jewish, Hispanic etc.) and is not conspicuously large in
relation to the total metropolitan population. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">Honolulu is the only major city in North
America where Asians and Pacific Islanders constitute the majority (63% in
1990). The Chinese population in 1990 was 63,354, which constituted 8% of the
city total. Japanese and Filipino-Americans and native Hawaiians (24%,14% and
11% respectively) outnumber them.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">There are two major cities in North America
where the resident Chinese populations are so prominent a part of the civic
fabric that Chinese culture is an integral part of their character and image.
San Francisco and Vancouver are known world-wide for being the most Chinese
cities outside of Asia.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">San Francisco&#146;s Chinese character is
historic more than it is current. The Chinese population, though large (332,033
in 1990), was only 5% of the metropolitan population. However, it has
undoubtedly grown to a larger proportion by 1998 - perhaps 7% and over half a
million people. The Asian Pacific Islander population is 14% of the population,
of which Chinese is the largest part. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">Greater Vancouver has the highest concentration
of Chinese-North Americans of any metropolitan area outside of Asia. The 1996
total of 288,780 Chinese-Canadians amount to 16% of Greater Vancouver&#146;s
population. In the City of Vancouver, where half of the Chinese population
lives, they constitute 28% of the city total population. In Richmond the
comparable figure is 34% of the city&#146;s population.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-1">It is small wonder that in Vancouver and San
Francisco, an aura reminiscent of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, or Taipei can visit you
as you walk the streets. But a similar sensation is there for the finding in
almost any city in North America. In seeking cultural connections for your
family, do not overlook the mountain of gold under your feet.</FONT></P>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="-2"><B>Last Updated: January 5th, 1999 </B></FONT> 
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